


Pizza and Mistletoe

by misura



Category: Alice (2009)
Genre: Christmas, Mistletoe, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-21
Updated: 2011-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-28 00:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>'Alice Hamilton, Jack Heart and David Hatter cordially invite you to a Christmas dinner at the following address.'</i> (a post-canon Christmas party)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pizza and Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gray Shadows (the_afterlight)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_afterlight/gifts).



A truth about apartments: the less people you put in them, the bigger they look.

Which, presumably, explained why the apartment rented in the names of Alice Hamilton, David Hatter and Jack Chase was looking very small indeed, this very moment.

(The tree probably didn't help.)

 

At some point, Alice recalled vaguely, Hatter had proposed inviting some of his old friends from Wonderland over for Christmas. It had seemed a bad idea at the time.

Jack declaring he thought it was a good idea, actually, had failed to magically make it so.

 _"These are the people you told me were going to kill you."_

 _"Eh,"_ Hatter had said. _"Bygones. Happens in the best of friendships, doesn't it?"_

 _"He's right, Alice,"_ Jack had said, apparently still suffering from this delusion that made him believe that when he said something, that made it true. _"Now might be a good time to mend some bridges."_ And, all right, put like that, it hadn't sounded so bad.

 

The thing about Dodo was that he liked to be a - well, no, not a freedom fighter, as such. Calling Dodo a freedom fighter would imply that he or she was someone who fought for freedom, whereas Dodo, when you came right down to it, was far less interested in freedom for all and much more so in -

"Law, order and justice. Charmed." Kissing her hand, Alice strongly suspected, had been as much to check for the presence of a certain ring as it had been to thank her for the invitation to come inside.

"Plenty of that in Wonderland these days, isn't it, Jack?" Dodo boomed, slapping Jack on the shoulder hard enough to make him wince.

Hatter, she noticed, had made himself scarce.

"I hope so," Jack said, smiling a smile that Alice would call 'polite' and Hatter 'fake'.

"Brought a few friends along," Dodo went on - either to Jack or to Alice. "Knew you wouldn't mind."

 

She found Hatter chatting with Dormouse, who complained about being out of a job, and also seemed rather intent on eating all of the cheese snacks all by herself.

"Alice! Don't move." Hatter stepped forwards, reached. Kissed her.

"Good old Hatter with the good old mistletoe trick," Dodo said to Ten of Clubs, who had showed up in a pair of jeans and a shirt that made him look like the most ordinary person in the room, aside from Alice herself. Jack was still wearing his royal uniform with the hearts, and Hatter was, well, Hatter. "Gets them every time."

"I think we want to keep Dodo away from the wine, yes?" Hatter whispered, before stepping back.

Jack looked slightly annoyed. Alice frowned at him by way of saying that no, she was _not_ going to be putting up with any more of this mistletoe nonsense.

"He _was_ one of yours all along, then," Ten of Clubs said to Dodo. "I did wonder."

"Alice," Jack said. "I think you should let me kiss you."

"I don't think so." She liked him, true - loved them both. There were rules, though, and limits, and if Hatter got away with bending them more easily, it was only because he had a knack for never, ever actually _breaking_ them.

Jack was more like Dodo, she supposed. Not as flexible - mentally, that was. Physically, Jack was plenty flexible, happily for Hatter and her. Speaking of whom: "Hatter!"

"Alice," Jack said, like she was being difficult and a bit unreasonable, but he loved her regardless.

"Alice?" Hatter asked, like he'd quite like to do a bit of vacuum cleaning or take out the trash - this very moment, if she so desired.

"Here," she told Jack, stepping back and pulling Hatter forwards (ties were such handy things). "Jack wants someone to give him a kiss. I need to get back to the kitchen."

"Girl's got game!" Dodo laughed.

It would, she decided, indeed be a good idea not to let Dodo get drunk.

Or anyone else for that matter, really.

 

"Anything I can do to help?" Ten of Clubs asked, looking around the kitchen as if he was considering what it'd cost to have his own done just like that.

Perhaps he was. "Not unless you know how to make a dinner for four serve eleven." Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it might be nice to make a new friend, someone who knew about Wonderland even if he didn't live there any longer. "Are you ... living here?"

"Working on the accent," Ten of Clubs said cheerfully. "As well as on about three years of backpay," he added, less cheerfully. "Did get a new job, though."

He'd been a fairly efficient civil servant slash captain of the royal guard before, or so Jack had said. Her own experience of his qualities and talents had been somewhat ... limited. "That's good."

Ten of Clubs nodded. "Pizza delivery," he said. "Fabulously irregular hours, hardly ever the same customer more than once a week and a ten percent discount on all orders, too. I love it."

 

"Is this a vegetable?" Owl asked Hatter. He looked none the worse for wear, Alice was pleased to see - apparently, Jack had accepted his 'defeat' with good grace - or possibly with the notion of exacting revenge at a later date, when there weren't quite so many people around.

"Yes, Owl, that's a vegetable."

Owl took a bite of her slice of pizza, chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. "It doesn't taste like a vegetable, Hatter. Are you sure?"

"Maybe it was pineapple. That's a fruit."

"I know a pineapple when I see one. I'm not _blind_. Where are my glasses?"

 

"A man with your talents," Jack coaxed, smiling a smile Alice would call 'feline' and Hatter would call 'slimy'. "Be a shame to waste them."

Ten of Clubs determinedly chewed on his discounted slice of pizza.

"Just give me a call some time," Jack said. "We'll sit down, have a talk. Wonderland _needs_ Suits like you if we want to rebuild it to its former prosperity."

"Or you could deliver pizzas." There was nothing _wrong_ with delivering pizzas, Alice thought, although she imagined the glow might wear off, eventually.

"Yes," Jack said, his tone making it clear how he thought about that. "Or you could do that."

"Or something else." It wasn't that she didn't understand where Jack was coming from, but, really, if the whole idea was to put things back the way they belonged, putting people into positions they didn't fit into anymore hardly seemed the right method, no matter how talented those people might be.

 

"No," Dodo said. "Absolutely no frigging way." Hatter's expression was a bit puzzled, until Dodo added: "Look up, you idiot." You'd think, Alice reflected, that with one sprig of mistletoe in the entire apartment, it'd be fairly easy to avoid getting caught under it.

Hatter looked at Alice. Alice looked at Jack. Jack looked at Hatter.

They both moved at the same time.


End file.
